Making It As A Mom: Artkive

This is a post for 31 Days about making it as a mom. Check out the intro post if this is your first time here!

Hello! Today we’re going to talk about paper, specifically all the paper that is generated by children. If your kids are anything like mine, you might find yourself inundated with artwork. Between school papers, art projects, and doodles, dozens of papers can accumulate in my house every week. We simply don’t have room to keep everything (or even most things)!

A friend introduced me to a genius solution: Artkive. This app allows you to take a picture of the child’s art, label it with pertinent information (name, date, school grade or age), and store it digitally. This has been a wonderful compromise for my kids’ love of paper and my love of uncluttered spaces. When paper builds up, I pull out my phone, snap a picture, and then hand the paper to my kid for them to decide what to do with it. At this point, they can “be done with it” (read: trash) or hang it on their art line—a string of twine with mini clothespins that allows them to display a few pieces of art at a time. The kids are happy that their work is not merely going to the trash, and I’m happy that I don’t feel like I’m living in a paper factory.

At this point, I haven’t done anything with the photos except store them in the app. However, Artkive allows you to turn art into cards, phone cases, photo books, and a wide variety of products such as beach towels and dog beds (why?).